WeChat Users Will Not Be Penalised, US Says

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is set to release regulations by Sunday clarifying what WeChat transactions will be prohibited.

WeChat Users Will Not Be Penalised, US Says

There are no plans to target persons who only use WeChat to convey personal or business information

Highlights
  • WeChat has been downloaded 19 million times in the United States
  • In China, the app is ubiquitous as a medium for services and games
  • Trump's order said WeChat captures vast of information from its users
Advertisement

WeChat users will not face civil or criminal penalties even if the United States bans the Chinese-owned messaging app through other actions next week, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

In August, President Donald Trump unveiled a proposed sweeping ban on US transactions with Tencent, owner of the popular mainland Chinese app. The executive order, which called WeChat and Bytedance's short-video app TikTok "significant threats" to national security, followed stepped-up US efforts to purge "untrusted" Chinese apps from US digital networks.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is set to release regulations by Sunday clarifying what WeChat transactions will be prohibited.

WeChat users have filed a motion in US District Court in San Francisco seeking a preliminary injunction to bar the Trump administration from prohibiting the use of WeChat in the United States by individual users, businesses and groups. A hearing on the request is for Thursday.

The Justice Department responded in a filing on Wednesday that Ross does not plan to target persons or groups who only download or use WeChat to convey personal or business information and said they would not face criminal or civil penaltes.

But the department added that "use of the app for such communications could be directly or indirectly impaired through measures targeted at other transactions."

The WeChat users who sued said the order apparently prohibits "millions of WeChat users in the United States ... from using the most popular social media space for Chinese speakers in the world."

WeChat has been downloaded 19 million times in the United States, showed data from Sensor Tower, but in China, the app is ubiquitous as a medium for services, games and payments.

Trump's order said WeChat "automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users," which "threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information."

© Thomson Reuters 2020


Is Android One holding back Nokia smartphones in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

God of War: Ragnarök Announced for PS5, Releasing 2021
Facebook Messenger, Portal Getting Third-Party AR Effects Starting Early 2021
Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat LinkedIn Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News

Advertisement

Follow Us
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »